A valuable way to approach tight budgets and tough choices – SCN Encourager

Not all of our challenges are instruction related.

We’ve always have pesky “outliers.”

 

 

 

 

 

• inadequate funding
• board committees
• staffing moves
• facility needs
• back-to-school communications
• and losing our best quarterback to graduation

Sometimes we’ll lose sleep over these things.

But the noble purpose of what we do is worth it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Occasionally we’ll wrestle with stressful issues and only see two options available; crummy and less crummy.

That’s what being stuck in a low valley does to out thinking.

We can see up… but we can’t see our way out.

I heard a “turn-around” leadership coach offer this recommendation.

He said when we must face tough realities and make tough decisions, we need to pull our team together for a 60 minute re-set session.

Without spreadsheets or copies of the strategic plan created two years ago, we should dedicate an hour for brainstorming these two questions:

“What does our current situation make possible? What can we do now that we couldn’t have done before?”

The leadership coach said he’s NEVER seen a leadership team fail to positively re-orient itself after this exercise.

Of course… I’ve never attended any of those brainstorming sessions.

I would’ve derailed those sessions by bringing up the fact that Americans eat 150 million hot dogs every July 4th.

How is this possible?!? 

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